Getting to Know Jim Bettcher

Unlike some others, I didn’t have more than a passing interest in flying when I was young. After I received an appointment to the US Air Force Academy in 1964 during my senior year at high school in Scottsdale, Arizona, flying was in my future. While at USAFA, I participated in a cooperative Master’s Degree program in Aeronautics/Astronautics, so after graduation, I completed my MS at Purdue University before starting pilot training at Moody AFB, Georgia in March 1969. Bob Wallenczyk, a civilian instructor in the first phase of AF pilot training, soloed me at Valdosta Municipal Airport on the 8th of April 1969.

As a young lieutenant, I was eager to do my part in Viet Nam and volunteered but was assigned to Instructor Pilot duties at Reese AFB, Lubbock, TX. After four years of training new pilots, new instructor pilots, and giving check rides at Reese and Randolph AFB, TX, the fuel crisis hit and my choices were either a non-flying job teaching AFROTC or separating. By that time, I was hooked on flying and took a three year AFROTC assignment to North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. In Denton, on my off time, I obtained my civilian instructor ratings and flew for the local Piper dealership, ending up with nearly 500 hours of light aircraft time.

The next assignment was 18 months flying the C-141 before being sent to the Air Force Test Pilots School at Edwards AFB, California. In nearly a year at TPS, I flew 28 different aircraft including the F-4,104,-106, the A-4,-6,-7,-37, the B-52,-57,-26 and the U-2.

T-38 while I was an instructor pilot in 1970 at Reese AFB, Lubbock, TX Pressure suit fitting prior to flight above 50,000’ in a U-2 Following graduation, I stayed at Edwards in Flight Test Operations and was eventually the Operations Officer. My next assignment was at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio where I was the 4952nd Test Squadron Commander.

Finally, after deciding to leave the Air Force, I moved to Travis AFB, California where I flew the C-5 and commanded Detachment 1 of the USAF Airlift Center while leading operational testing of the C-5B.

In the Air Force, I flew test flights on the C-141, C-5A & B, NKC-135 and the HU-25/Falcon-20. My Air Force flying time totaled 6056 hours in 46 different aircraft, including helicopters and gliders.

I was hired by Delta Airlines immediately after retiring from the Air Force in 1988 and flew the B-727,-737, -757, and -767 before retiring in 2005 as a Captain on the B-767. During nearly 17 years at Delta, I logged nearly 10,000 flying hours. I loved all of my commercial flying, but most enjoyed the three years I flew the 767 to Europe and India from JFK in New York.

With my experience in flight test and two degrees in Aero/Astro Engineering, a year after starting at Delta, I joined the Air Line Pilots Association, Air Safety Committee, where I volunteered for the next 16 years. I was a member of the team that shared the 1995 Collier Trophy for the B-777 and represented all airline pilots on the FAA’s Flight Test Working Group, which included Chief Test Pilots of all aircraft manufacturers. I served on several international committees and wrote standards for transport aircraft flight testing and satellite communications.

My ratings include Flight Engineer-Turbojet; Private Pilot-Glider; Commercial - ASEL; Airline Transport Pilot-AMEL B-707,-720,-737,-757,-767,DC-9; and Flight Instructor-ASEL.

U-2 prior to my high altitude flight Boeing 767 prior to my final flights with Delta When I was landing a Cessna 210 in Louisville, KY after a 4+ hour flight in constant rain and solid IFR, I lowered my gear and all of my instruments and radios failed. Since I was stabilized on the ILS centerline, just intercepting the glideslope, I flew heading and vertical velocity until the high intensity lead in lights started lighting up the clouds below me. Using them for heading guidance, I continued my standard descent until about 100’ when I picked up the threshold and landed NORDO in front of several commercial aircraft holding to take off.

Flying the same Cessna 210, 4 days later, returning to Fort Worth, TX after climbing to VFR on-top conditions at 10,000’, with 3 ROTC cadets asleep in the aircraft, a cylinder blew over the mountains of western Tennessee. Unable to maintain altitude, ATC vectored me over the nearest airport before I lost radio contact. There were no navigation aids, so I compensated for the winds I thought I had as I circled and descended into the clouds. Using my Sectional map, I knew the approximate ground elevation and the relationship of the airport to the town. The engine continued to run, but the best I could do was 3 or 400 fpm descent when at about 1500’ above airport elevation, I started seeing houses below me. I turned to the northwest and within a minute or two, sighted the airport and landed “uneventfully.”

I once decided that a flying club Cessna 150 I had flown to San Antonio a couple days before, didn’t sound good on the runup and taxied back into an FBO. The engine was changed before the airplane flew again.

Fortunately I only had to jump out of an airplane 5 times — at Army Airborne training one summer while a cadet at the Academy.

I have flown over 16,700 hours in approximately 60 aircraft types and as slow as -10 knots in a helicopter, as fast as Mach 1.5 in a F-4, and as high as 80,000 feet in a U-2. The B-52 and F-104 had among the most interesting flying characteristics. The C-5 and B-767-300 were the most stable. Mumbai, India was my most exotic destination, but Barbados in the winter was pretty sweet when I lived in Ohio.

Among my most memorable experiences are flying the U-2 above 80,000’; flying the F-104 at Mach .95 across the desert at a very low altitude with X-15 record holder, NASA Test Pilot Bill Dana; flying the T-38 with Chuck Yeager; and having dinner with General Jimmy Doolittle.

I have attended Oshkosh every other year for about 20 years.

In 2006, my wife, Mary, and I moved from Colleyville, TX to Sequim where we spent 3 years completely remodeling a 100-year home on Sequim Bay that we had purchased 6 years earlier. When time allowed, I again started flying and partnered for nearly 3 years on a Grumman Tiger. After that aircraft was sold, with the encouragement and assistance of Ray Ballantyne, I purchased the only aircraft I have owned, a beautifully amateur-built GlaStar which I flew for 5 years.

I was a runner and skier for most of my life. The mountains have always been my favorite place. Sequim was chosen for retirement because of the ocean for Mary and the mountains for me. I now ride road and mountain bicycles regularly. Mountain biking is a special passion.

Jim & Harley